American Indians celebrate past

By Jennifer Umana, Special to the Online Forty-Niner

Thursday, November 19, 1998

Beautiful songs and dances created by the Tongva Nation Dancers brought to life the culture of the Tongva, the native people of the Los Angeles basin, as they performed for the American Indian studies program on Tuesday night at the University Student Union Small Auditorium.

A lecture given by head dancer Mark Acuna preceded the dance performance.

Acuna said that dance conveys culture. Each of the dances performed had its own story, which Acuna detailed.

His main focus was on the Tongva Creation Dance and myth. This myth reveals the coyote as the creator of humans. He said he chose this myth because the coyote is respected among the Tongva as a great survivor.

During the dance part of the presentation, male dancers dressed in coyote skins created human forms out of clay as they danced around a decorated pole in the center of the stage.

Known as the Kutumne pole, this is regarded as the center of the universe.

The pole provides stability and all of the choreography goes to this center.

The pole touches the sky and is buried in the earth, Acuna said. The pole, painted red with black and white stripes and adorned with feathers, contains soil from the Los Angeles and Orange county basins.

The dancers have been together since 1995. With their faces painted and their bodies adorned with beads, feathers and animal skins, they walked in twos and threes. They sat down behind Acuna and created steady beats with clapper sticks and rattles as he recounted stories of the Tongva.

Acuna told the audience how the Tongva people are working hard to research their history.

"We are struggling to nourish our souls and the souls of our children with the vision of not so much a return to Tovangar but a journey forward into a new Tongva-centered cosmos filled with contradictions and astonishing discoveries," Acuna said.

Many of the stories that Acuna gets involved with came from his grandfather. As a young boy, he rarely paid attention to them, but he said they all stayed in his memory.

"Nothing is lost," Acuna said. "It's just hidden. Just keep on looking, and if you can't find it, go to sleep."

Acuna said his storytelling is like a thank you to his grandfather.

All of the dances were not performed in full. Instead, the audience received what Acuna called "... a taste of what it once was."

Besides the Creation Dance, three other dances were performed: The Couples Welcome Dance, the Hunters' Dance and the Women's Circle of Life.

Performances for the rest of the semester for the American Indian studies program are scheduled on Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. in the Small Auditorium.